A/N: SHEESH. Sorry for the wait, I've just been pretty busy lately. But hey its not all on me, it you guys a while to get those ten reviews together, and I was really serious about that rule. Anyway, this chapters just a little back story, because I figured I throw you guys a bone. I know everyone is confused about Layne's role in the Pretty Committee so I thought this would clear things up pretty nicely. Let me know if I left anything out okay? Its hard to remember what bases I haven't covered so if there are any questions I haven't answered please, please, please review so I can address them in the next chapter. Okay guyzzz you know the rule! Ten until we meet again!
"To be honest, I'm a little disappointed that it took you this long." Massie blew a mouthful of thick, curling smoke out her bedroom window and watched with riveted eyes as it unfurled in the cool black sky. She sounded as disinterested as ever, but Claire couldn't see what expression was etched across her pretty face.
"Well I didn't really think you'd have given me a straight answer before." Claire answered honestly, perching her self at the edge of Massie's plush bed self-consciously.
"You're probably right." The other girl turned, tucking a lock of straight shiny hair behind one diamond studded ear and cocked her head to the side slightly, in question. "I suppose its time you got the full story." Massie sat in the nook under the window daintily, pulling her knees up to her chest and taking another long drag from her cigarette before snubbing it out in a crystal ash try at her side. It was the most relaxed Claire had ever seen her, decked in a pair of comfy looking yoga leggings and a forest green Tomahawks jersey that sported the name Harrington on the back in thick white letters. Her face was devoid of any makeup and her hair half falling around her shoulders from a messy high pony. She looked young, and approachable even with the distant, vacant expression on her fairy like features.
"I founded the Pretty Committee at the start of sixth grade, about a month after I'd moved to Westchester. It wasn't a big deal back then. To be honest, Kristen and I just wanted something to call ourselves. It was just the two of us and we thought we were so clever, real smartasses, mouthing off to whomever we wanted. When we met Dylan in seventh grade it was like a train picking up speed. She added what we lacked, which was true exclusitivity. Everybody knew who Dylan was, who her mom was. She was a bonafide celebrity and with her, it made the three us all the more special. We were pretty and smart and elite in way that no one else could manage. And then Alicia joined in eighth and we became untouchable because Alicia is stunning and worldly and sweet and we didn't even have to come to her, she sought us out. It was like after that everyone just knew. This is Pretty Committee; these are the girls you don't fuck with. We could do whatever we wanted, say whatever we wanted. I didn't even have to work to lead them; they just gave it to me. Their trust, their loyalty, their time and attention. I lead us straight to the top." Her voice was soft, but still strong with a proud glint in her amber eyes.
"But I was naïve to think it would work that way in high school. When we got here I thought I could just extend my rule, have an iron fist on the ninth grade but I'd never taken into consideration the older girls. The ones like me, who had been ruling longer than I'd ever know. We were in danger of falling apart. I was going to lose Kristen to soccer, and Dylan to those celebrity kids. The ones who come in once a week to just take tests and study on yachts in Bermuda the whole year. Alicia had met Josh and the boys by extent already and became so nestled into their group we hardly ever saw her. That's when I first met Layne."
Claire's eyes widened dramatically and she had to stop herself from interrupting the older girls story. Massie just lit another cigarette and inhaled deeply.
"I didn't know you smoked."
"Only during uncomfortable conversations." She gave Claire something that might have been a smiled but was decidedly more like a grimace before blundering onward. "She wasn't top dog the way she is now. Back then she was just a junior and someone else's subordinate like the rest of us, but Layne's always been." Massie considered her words carefully ". . . ambitious. I think she knew we could help each other and that's why she sought me out. She recognized our potential. This game we play, the one you're in, is her creation. Something she started a long time ago. A way to sniff out the fakes. Whoever was willing enough, desperate enough could stay and anyone with even a seed of doubt would leave. She gave it to me and that's how we met Olivia." Massie's face broke into a true smile at that, warm and real and sad.
"She was so good, so loyal, really one of us. Everyone loved her and she just slid right in, like she had always been there. But the game was hard for her, she couldn't handle all the challenges and she had to ask for help. That's when Layne stepped in. It was the deal we had made back then. I'd play this game as long as I could and when I couldn't she'd take over. When Olivia asked for her help it was like she signed away her soul. Layne owned her and everyone knew it. At first it wasn't so bad, because Layne treated her so well. Mingling with the older crowd, exclusive parties we couldn't get into, trips and shopping and boys. Then the assignments started rolling in and its like Olivia just became this entirely different person." Massie's hands shook a little and she took another drag.
"Running for Layne changed her more than we anticipated. She was serious and stressed and it made her sloppy. By the time she finally cracked, finally slipped up, it was too late. There was nothing I could do for her. Layne destroyed her, buried her so deep we couldn't dig her out if we tried. It was a warning for us, don't get too attached."
She met Claire's wide blue eyes and smirked. "You probably think it's cruel, living the way we do, but its not. It's real. To you it might seem like petty high school bullshit, but its so much more than that. Ameswood is the door to our futures. Being in with the right people, being seen at the right places. It's the difference between having a future and ending up as another coked out trust fund kid. You know it, that's why you're still here. Why you stayed around when Reina and Kellie couldn't. Why you put up with my attitude and Dylan's bitchiness and Kristen's snark and Alicia's drama. You sensed it's worth Claire. And that's why you accepted Layne's offer. Because you know what it means to be a Pretty Committee girl and you want that. You want it just as bad as Olivia did, maybe more. I can't help you, telling you all this already violates the deal with Layne, but you were halfway there already, I just filled in the cracks." Massie snubbed her second cigarette out and stood, pulling her glossy hair down into a neat side braid. Her emotionless mask slid back neatly into place and the vulnerable sad girl she'd been a few minutes ago was gone, dumped like ash into the night sky. Her computer dinged from the polished wood desk in the corner and she glanced at it, casually flicking Claire's presence away with the turn of her wrist. "Leave. That's Harrington on Skype."
"Massie." Claire lingered in the doorway; brushing her choppy bangs from her eyes and lifting her head a little to meet the other girl's gaze hesitantly. "Thank you, I-I won't let you or the others down." She said in a stronger voice than she felt, straitening her back a little in false confidence.
Massie frowned. "Just get the fuck out of my house already."